Can’t believe people actually believe this.
I went to a forum dedicated to him, and they all believed him.
Looks like everones gotta believe in something, no matter how ridiculous.
Wow, amazing!
A small pet peeve. I’m at a computer where it would be a bad idea it click on links willy-nilly. I don’t mind if it is buried in the middle of a thread where I can take it or leave it and still follow the thread but I have no idea what you are talking about. A little background would be nice. I have never heard of John Titor.
He’s a time traveller from the year 2036, a civil war in the U.S and a world war destroyed most of the planets infrastucture. All this is supposed to happen in the year 2004 where the seeds of all this begin to grow.
Anyway he was on his way back from 75’ to get some computer parts, and stopped in 2001 to share some information plus, answer any questions about what it is like to be a time traveller.
He claims that a civil war engulfs the U.S basically the cities vs. countryside a la Vietnam.
Oh that John Titor. The bastard owes me money. Or he will someday. 
I wonder if “John Titor” saw a 2001 Kevin Spacey film called K-PAX. He was probably just an Internet geek (maybe even a Doper) who thought it would be fun to yank the net’s collective chain.
He mentions a civil war which is supposed to begin in about seven years from now without even hinting at what its cause might be beyond some nebulous regional divisions. He says there “was” a third world war killing a billion people, but that, aside from being more family and communoity oriented life remains pretty much the same. He doesn’t explain how such a cataclysmic war left a core of scientific minds capable of penetrating the temporal dimension. He doesn’t explain how science of his day was capable of time travel, but needed to go back to the late 20th century to learn about basic computer science.
This guy is imaginative, and obviously persuasive. He excites others’ imaginations without really revealing anything of substance.
He should start a religion.
Really. The author(s) behind it have written some pretty compelling fiction. I remember reading about “John Titor” on this board back in 2002 and thinking that it was perhaps a interesting publicity campaign for an upcoming sci-fi novel. If it was, the novel never appeared, at least according to the Wikipedia entry for Titor.
I think what makes “Titor’s” story “believeable” is due in large part to the well-rounded nature of the “title character” himself. The author(s) behind the stunt obviously took a lot of time to construct a consistent, detailed narrative. Titor himself appears at turns nostalgic, fascinated, hopeful, weary, dismissive. The author(s) took a few quantifiables–most notably the “UNIX bug of 2038”–and worked them into, as the Wikipedia entry puts it, “literate, elaborate, evocative, and reasonably consistent” story. It’s also as if the author(s) intended to hit a specific nerve in American society as well: (also from the entry)
Of course, if there really is anyone out there who believes Titor is real, the following claim will (one hopes) end those beliefs soon:
John Titor talk is still around? The last time I heard his name was something like a year ago.
IIRC, there was an internet site that tracked his every move. I remember reading a good portion of his diary (email? I can’t remember) and thinking how much time I had just wasted reading it.
It’s a compelling tale for people willing and eager to believe in a survivalist fantasy of the evil and complex world of modernity crashing down, and a “closer to the earth” better world coming after (and there are lots and lots of them) .
The engineering and scientific claims for this time travel abilities, and even pics of his time machines are absurd beyond imagining, and good for a hearty horse laugh by anyone with even a passing grasp of the history of science and basic physics.
This page has pics and diagrams of this little time machine I remember higher res pics being available on other sites but these will do. The most amusing part is that right at the end of the page is one of those “What’s your IQ” adware pop ups.
Now that I think of it, it does seem reminicent of the 90s era and pre 9/11 thought. Sometimes I miss that, and how I didn’t appreciate it when I was living it.
Oh well.
This “legendary” individual was previously discussed here many times.
Here is the earliest thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=235353&highlight=titor
Somebody mentioned that maybe John Titor got his idea from the movie K-Pax.
Here’s someone who got his cult idea from a bizarre TV Movie - The Mysterious Two - from 1982.
Remember back in 1997 and the “Heaven’s Gate” cult whose 3 dozen or so members committed suicide because their leader told them to do that? He said the comet Hale-Bopp was being followed by a UFO and if they killed themselves (yes he did himself in too), they would catch a ride on that spaeship and go on to who knows what?
And although Jim Jones didn’t base his cult on any movie, remember back in 1978 and the mass suicide in Guyana that occurred?
Let’s not forget David Koresh in Waco, Texas.
Charles Manson might be another example of this “cult leader” behavior.
Basically, it seems that somebody (now matter how strange) will always manage to attract a bunch of “believers” who will do just about anything for their “leader”.